I wanted to fix the portlight in the head so that one could not look in for obvious reasons. What better way to do it than with a stained glass insert. I took a stained glass class with Julie Gill a while back and decided to put those skills to work. This shows how I did it.
I started out making this piece using the basic copper foil method. This is covered elsewhere so I won't go into detail here.
Once made I had to figure out how to secure it to the portlight so that it would not be knocked loose. Also I did not want to alter the portlight by drilling holes or soldering.
Initially I bent a 3/16 brass rod into an oval. I intended to solder picture hanging wire to it. But soldering the brass oval to the stained glass proved difficult and the results messy.
The second and successful attempt is detailed in the pictures below.
I used a drill to twist the mounting wire to resemble a rope. Here I did it in such a way that it left tabs every few inches. Then I soldered this to the front of the stained glass.
I carefully bent the tabs back to prepare for mounting. The tabs had to conform to the shape of the rim of the portlight and not put excessive stress on the stained glass.
I held the stained glass firmly in the portlight. Then I bent the tabs all the way around the back of the portlight. Next, I snipped the tabs so they stopped just shy of the rubber gasket. This is how the finished mounting looks from the inside.
Here is in detail how the tab bends around and holds the stained glass firmly in position.
Here is what it looks like outside at night.